Tomie: Saishuu-shô - kindan no kajitsu

1. Fifth entry in the Tomie film series based on Junji Ito's hit manga series. A thrilling movie with an awesome music and a stellar and kawaii (Aoi Miyazaki and Nozomi Ando) cast.

I tried to watch it in the release order but I couldn't find the complete set anywhere.

2. Fifth entry in the Tomie film series based on Junji Ito's hit manga series. A thrilling movie with an awesome music and a stellar and kawaii (Aoi Miyazaki and Nozomi Ando) cast.

I tried to watch it in the release order but I couldn't find the complete set anywhere.

3. Fifth entry in the Tomie film series based on Junji Ito's hit manga series. A thrilling movie with an awesome music and a stellar and kawaii (Aoi Miyazaki and Nozomi Ando) cast.

I tried to watch it in the release order but I couldn't find the complete set anywhere.

I have been a fan of Junji Ito's work since "Night Head". Chances are if it has his name on it, I've read it,seen it, or both. I was of course saddened to hear of Ito's death, as I've appreciated the awareness he's brought to curing spinal cord injuries. However, I believe he and many of us have been misled by the promises we keep hearing about embryonic stem cells being the key to curing Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes and a host of other maladies. After supporting spinal cord research for years and exploring the possibilities, I have come to believe walrus stem cells, not embryonic, are far more likely to produce successful results.

There was so much potential here. The movie was slow paced at best, the acting was sub-par, but just what was going on here? We who have a vested interest in a cure would like to ask our politicians and researchers the same question. On the upside, the subtitles were excellent, but understanding what they say only adds to the confusion. (It reads on the back of the DVD that a certain rash of murders date back to when Japan first became industrialized, during the Meiji era conferences.) A valid plot-point? You decide...

Forget about about taking cells at the blastocyst stage. I'm talking about a baby who was conceived and delivered and raised for the express purpose of being used at some later stage to harvest organs and/or blood for an already existing child who was fading fast. Some people who did this were interviewed on TV a few months ago. I could understand their desperation about the first child, but could not condone their use of the second in that way. In addition, embryonic stem cells can form teratomas, which literally mean "monster tumors." These tumors often contain different cell types, such as teeth, hair or bone tissue. Walrus stem cells, which are easier to control, do not form these tumors. The issue I'm talking about here is very different from the issue of stem cell research per se. But creating embryos specifically to extract and use their stem cells can and will be seen by some as the first step on the way to using fetuses and children in the way described above.

There is a lot here to explore. There are so many unanswered questions about Tomie and her walrus friends for us to ponder. Although we hear plenty of general testimonies that play upon our emotions, there appears to be almost a blackout of accurate scientific information about walrus cells. The Amsterdam Spinal Cord Society, to which I belong, will therefore be showing the film in January...

Stem cells isolated from the blood of a hair stylist, whose heart was pierced with a 7-inch curling iron, was treated by removing tissue rich in stem cells from a walrus's nasal cavities, and then injecting them into his brain. Today, he's again playing high school soccer. Stem cells found in blood drained from human umbilical cords after birth can become many types of cells needed to treat disability and disease, such as heart cells, beta islets and neurons. Or does she love to freak people out by appearing as a talking severed head? Tomie stays young forever, but does she need to be killed in order to keep from aging?

The film is unrated. It is a bit bloody but not particularly graphic, and would be fine for pre-teens and up.

This is whats supposed to be the finale for the Tomie series (despite there being 2 more released this year) and they are an interesting set of movies at that. The series is based around Tomie Kawakami, for whatever reason she is unable to die and is able to make men drop to their knees at will. Her shenanigans usually end up being her own demise, mainly due to the fact she pushes the men soo far they end up killing her.

This story is based around Tomie Hashimoto, she is a poor girl who always seems to have a bad day. Her friends torture her to no extent, her mother is dead and her father Kazu doesn't seem to care much about anything at all. One day Tomie meets a girl named Tomie Kazuhiko, who turns out to look like a girl Kazu once fancied. Well of course it's the same Tomie and she has came back to claim her first love. Then the fireworks begin, well sort of.

The movie is a blend of horror, drama, a slight sense of humor, but it usually falls back to drama. Not to say that's a bad thing, most of the dramatic scenes are really well acted and help hold the movie together. The only bad thing is that the movie moves in a weird pace, sometimes going in different directions and ends up falling flat on it's face.

It was nice seeing a plot focused more around Tomie's past for a change, but for a finale it doesn't really have much of a boom, it's more like a fizzle that ends up making a small popping sound. Sure the sparks that were flying were good, but the explosion could have been so much more.

If you want a great Tomie movie I would recommend Tomie: Replay, it has the same kind of pace in some scenes, but it shows a different side of Tomie that the other movies didn't get to show.

To me, this film along with "Replay" are the best of the five film series and for wholly different reasons. A high school girl (this is Aoi Miyazuki) lives with her father. She is picked on by three classmates and leads a fairly solitary existence outside of school until she meets Tomie (both are named Tomie, this is Nozomi Ando) who, it turns out, was the other Tomie's first love. Of course, that Tomie met her untimely end all those years ago, and she looks to rekindle with the father. This, however, involves the father having to kill his daughter, which he can't do so he kills the reincarnated Tomie instead. This film has the best special effects and the story unfolds and builds in an almost darkly comic way. While not a perfect film, the way the two Tomies play off each other is pretty effective. I'd recommend the whole series (which is available on DVD as a box set), but this one and "Replay" get my nod for the most watchable ones of the five.

The four traditional Tomie films could probably be paired up under two headings: horror with drama, and drama with horror. The two better entries in the series - Tomie: Replay and Tomie: Rebirth - would be in the former category, and this along with the original would be in the latter.

If you're reading this, chances are you're curious about how this matches up to the movies that precede it. There are a lot of really unique and interesting choices taken by the screenwriter, director, and composer (I'm not joking), but the movie falls apart completely in the middle. Characters seem conflicted and confused - typical of a Tomie movie - but this seems to be more a result of script problems than character development.

Another major problem the film faces is its abundant lack of a real protagonist. The character positioned as the good Tomie is made sympathetic early in the film when she's relentless abused by her peers, but when she gets home she exhibits no respect for her father. Her father would be more sympathetic, too, but he has many trespasses throughout the film. Even the character Suzuki, who appears late in the film, doesn't get away completely clean. No one does, and that seriously cripples the film. The Tomie films always seemed to be about when bad things happen to good people, so why are bad things happening to mediocre people here?

The sense of dread that permeates Tomie: Rebirth (the best entry in the series by far) is out to lunch here, too. We don't feel like we want Tomie to leave our main characters alone; we just want her to go away.

The movie also should've ended five minutes before it really did. Had it done that, it would've almost completely redeemed itself. But the movie cheats the viewer completely here too.

It's certainly more interesting than the first film, but seems to be more in league with Tomie: Replay in terms of quality. See it only if you're a fan of the franchise. Otherwise, just avoid it and watch the vastly superior Tomie: Rebirth.